6 Comments

Moeron

The battery case review was pretty good. What about batteries themselves? Duracell? Kodak? Energizer? What about rechargeables? And live up to your nerdiness, really get all Consumer Reports on your vids. I want data and stats and charts and stuff. Oh and words that make me (a non nerd) question if it’s Latin or French too.

dslrnerd

Thanks for the comment! What battery brand to use is pretty personal to the photographer. I use Eneloop rechargeable batteries – they supposedly keep their charge longer. Though rechargeable batteries aren’t quite as powerful as the regular store-bought kind, so some photographers just buy a bunch of those for every job.

I do have a few Energizer rechargeables as backups, but they don’t keep their charge as long. I have a charger that juices 16 batteries at a time, so before a job I usually slap all the batteries I’ll need on that to be sure they’re topped off.

dslrnerd

Hi Benito, Yes the DP 500 rail system and follow focus is different from the DP 500 2. The DP 500 rail system doesn’t come with a camera quick release. And the DP 500 Follow Focus does not have focus hard stop adjusters. Be careful when ordering though, because Amazon mislabeled a DP 500 2 rail saying it had quick release, when it in fact came without it. I had to buy a quick release separately. Watch my video here, I compare the two: http://new.dslrnerd.com/fotga-dp500-2-follow-focus-rails-reviewed/

Apparently this guy had the same thing happen. He says he’s reviewing the DP 500 2 Rails but he has no quick release:http://youtu.be/6ffJXEvvy_E

Are the hard stops worth the $60 difference in follow focus? Eh probably. Especially if you’re racking focus by yourself. If you have a 2nd person operating the follow focus he can just stop on his dry erase marks, which you can’t see as well from behind the camera.

You can use either rail systems with a camcorder, sure. But you need to have a camcorder with a manual focus ring to use a follow focus (like the Canon Vixia HF G10).